


fools and kings

by Antares (Alvaerele)



Series: over land and sea [2]
Category: Alien Series, Alien: Covenant, Prometheus (2012)
Genre: F/M, this is a follow up to a previous story!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 00:48:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12070341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alvaerele/pseuds/Antares
Summary: the second engineer, presumed sole survivor of the prometheus mission, finds herself reliving the past when a representative from weyland-yutani presents her with a familiar offer**This is the sequel to my story "how to fall in love with an android", where the main character survives the end of Prometheus, and tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered past after losing her cohorts, and one very special android.





	fools and kings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clementinethedemon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clementinethedemon/gifts).



> Hello, all! I'm doing something a bit different: rather than ending my Prometheus story before starting this one, I'm going to leave that one open to more suggestions and oneshots, so as this story picks up speed and gets a little, let's call it "grim", you can always go back to the other one for a pick-me-up.
> 
> This first chapter is essentially the end to the other story. Next chapter is the beginning to this one. The lead is still the one from the last story, but she will be a little more rounded out as a character, from here on out, for storytelling's sake. I hope no-one is too put off by that!
> 
> I'd like to thank you all for the support you've given my previous story. It means a lot. I hope this new one continues to please.

           When the smoke lifted from the air and her eyes slowly began to part at the burning star’s glare, she realized she was bleeding. Right leg. Deep gash. But how? The second engineer wracked her brain for what felt like eons until she could wrench one miniscule fragment from her foggy memory. It came in shambolic blips; the Engineer Juggernaut, a large, pale creature flinging her from her feet to her back, a shooting pain capturing her spine, and the hurried fear in her throat as she scrambled away from the console room, down the corridors, until…

Light.

She looked up, peering groggily at the star as its rays bore down on her like a stinging poison. Blinking, she craned her head to either side of her. To her right was a massive, looming wall of ashen metal. A small bend that waxed out as it stretched above her small frame, and waned in to form a lunar crest. The Juggernaut. It was… ravaged. Demolished. But everyone was on it…

David was on it.

She clutched her abdomen as a pain gripped it tight and wouldn’t let go. Managing the strength to lean up, she angled her head to the left and emptied the contents of her stomach. It was bitter, and warm, and it stung like acid as it left her throat.

She was crying.

Pressing her communicator, she steadied her voice. “This is the Second Engineer. Does anyone copy?”

Dead air. She began to hyperventilate.

“Please. Someone has to be out there. Shaw?”

Silence.

“Charlie? Janek?”

Her mouth was agape, wavering as her tears came careening down her cheeks, falling past parted lips.

“ _David?_ Please, David, are you still there?”

The minutes drew on, and with each passing one she felt as the world became so vast, so dark, and so _empty_ she was reduced to a mess of tears and screams.

And that’s when she heard it. And _felt_ it.

A few kilometers north. The ground beneath her was shaking as a large ship, not dissimilar to the Juggernaut, was lifting up into the sky. Her heart sank into her stomach, as she watched on. It grew smaller and smaller, going from a colossus of mech, to a tiny pinprick in the clouds.

_I’m still here_ , she realized. _Don’t leave me here._

The second engineer was to her feet immediately, her balance completely thrown off but her resolve steeled. With all the strength left in her body, she raced to a nearby dune, a couple hundred feet high, and climbed to its peak, all the while shouting into her comm system for someone, anyone, to stop the ship and save her.

And all at once, her world came crashing down onto her.

The life support battery in her helm began to beep. And flashing at the bottom left corner was a red label, warning her that all power was being redirected to life support. Her radio system was offline. A manual override was possible, but as she craned her head up at the departing ship, she knew all too well it was too late. They were gone. Whoever survived, be it the Last Engineer, or the rest of the crew. They were well past the stratosphere.

Her lips pursed, and she finally fell to her knees as her legs gave out under her. The second engineer spent the next hour weeping for her lost colleagues, and her fleeting salvation.

The hours that passed were spent searching for all necessary supplies needed to survive. There was an abandoned, and, thankfully, working rover just at the base of the dune she climbed. It whirred to life as she punched in her access code, and drove it along the path she took until she reached where she woke up. The second engineer spent some time acquainting herself with the wrecked Juggernaut, as well as the mostly-devastated Prometheus. There were some remaining fires that blocked her from entering certain areas of the ships, but for the most part, she was able to locate and identify the bodies of all her colleagues. They really were all gone. The charred corpses of Janek and his crew were soldered to their chairs and the flight console. The sight was heartrending, and she only remained long enough to say a quick goodbye to them. As she passed by Janek, she paused, and let out a whimper. He was one of the kinder individuals on the Prometheus. A good friend. A brave man. Her chest felt tight as she tenderly recalled one of their first interactions together; her first day she had walked onto the Prometheus with nary a friend nor familiar face. Appearing from behind her, Janek placed his hand gingerly around her shoulders, and leaned in. _“Don’t be too nervous. If an intergalactic road trip doesn’t earn you a friend or two, I don’t know what will.”_ And he winked, baring one of his charismatic smiles her way, before starting for the flight deck. 

        Before she could break down again, she fled the scene.

The rest of the crew were found on the Juggernaut. Their ends were much more brutal. Tiptoeing over the bodies of some nameless mercs, she came to the center console. The old man’s corpse was swollen and frail. As she stared him down, more and more fragments of the events prior would return, and she found herself reliving them as a cold hand gripped her heart deep in her chest. _David’s head being ripped from his shoulders. Weyland being backhanded, crumpling to the floor beside his dismantled creation. Then his guards were killed. And Ford. And…_ Each body discovered made her feel hollower inside. Like a puppet. Empty. Soulless.

They were all dead. She counted each and every one. The only three persons unaccounted for were Meredith, Elizabeth, and David. A quiet flame erupted in her bosom, a flicker of hope. If they were gone, at least they weren’t dead. That was the best scenario, anyway. The only scenario she would accept.

Meredith was resilient. Elizabeth was determined. And David was damn-near indestructible. She _would_ find them again.

Alive.

        With her determination rekindled, the woman fled the Juggernaut, and scouted the nearby area on her rover.

 

        It didn’t take long to discover Vickers’ disheveled abode amongst the ravaged terrain. The room had suffered quite a bit of damage, evidenced by the sparks pouring out from exposed circuitry, the flashing lights, and the collapsed walls. It was destroyed, but thankfully, stocked with items needed to get her off the damn moon.

        Navigating down the wide hallway that bridged the entrance and the body of the room, she immediately heard distressed clawing and moaning. Her eyes were wide, hopeful, but she approached with caution. Unarmed. Exposed. And, unfortunately, not well-versed in combat. However, the second engineer had her wits, and she knew to take things slow. As she rounded the corner, her eyes immediately connected with the Engineer twitching on the ground, as massive tendrils slithered away from its body. All color drained from her face. Its torso raised and lowered in a “still alive” kind of fashion, denoting the clear danger she was in.

        Alive or not, it was incapacitated, so she quickly hurried into the food storage on the opposite side of the room, and gathered as many packets of rations as she could fit in her utility pouches. There was a sense of urgency, as she saw that creature kill all her friends with no more than its bare hands, and she wasn’t about ready to have that happen to her. Jaw tense, she quickly entered Meredith’s private quarters, and located a toolbox.  _ Her _ toolbox. Unfastening the clips, she flipped it open and peered in to assure herself that all the necessary trappings were, in fact, still in there. And, thank God, they were.

        The box was secured and hanging carefully in her taut hands, as she tiptoed into the main area again. As her frame sauntered through the threshold, she was greeted with the sight of a writhing Engineer, screaming in pain as its torso repeatedly lurched upward, a form pressing against the musculature of its abdomen. It would stretch and  _ stretch _ until it looked like the Engineer was going to pop open like a balloon. All color drained from her face, and she nearly didn’t notice the grip on her toolbox slackening until it slipped out of her hand and fell with a sickening crash.

        And then an ear-piercing scream, and a boxy boom, which reverberated against the walls of the living space. A slick, black silhouette emerged from the cavity within the Engineer. From its maw dripped a thick, pasty saliva, as its jaws unhinged in a shrill roar.

       “Holy shit,” she huffed; the black creature was jerking itself free of its host. The second engineer ducked beneath the bar, and hurriedly rifled through her tools until she located a weighty wrench, and kept it pensively secure in her white-knuckle grip. She didn’t dare peek her head above the counter, out of fear that the black creature would instantly pounce on her. There was a scurrying a few meters ahead; the alien was likely roaming the area, in search of prey or foe, which, as luck would have it, was _ her _ .

       As she chewed on her inner cheeks, sweat pilled at her temples in droves, and she kept her ears keen on the subtle shuffles and pattering of the creature in that room. There was a pause, then a juvenile whine, before it chased out of the main deck. Her eyes were on its shadow as it bounced away, out of sight, onto the terrain of the moon outside. All at once the air left her lungs and she was gasping, eyes watering, as she realized how fucked she truly was.

 

     When she was young, her mother would take her on frequent spontaneous road trips. Nothing prolonged; maybe an hour at the longest, but it was a revered pastime all the same. She would buckle into the passenger’s seat, just a little too small for the restraint as it softly creased her neck’s delicate flesh, and watch with wide, eager eyes.

     “What’s today’s selection, dollface?” her mother would always ask, hands flipping through a booklet filled with some of Earth’s finest musical miscellanies. Though she needn’t; every trip was the same.

     As the child straightened in her seat, anticipation making her shake, her head tipped up as she beamed. “You know, mama!”

     Her mother would  _ always _ laugh, as she picked a weathered disc and pushed it into the customized console in the car. Though digital streaming had overtaken the need for analog devices, her mother always insisted on CDs and car radio.

     Always.

     She would press play, and they would drive, sun dipping behind the horizon, as the cool dusk air would hit their cheeks through the open windows. This ritual was one of her favorites growing up, and she remembered belting out her favorite words, every single time, as their truck sped towards the infinite expanse of road ahead.

_      “There was a boy _

_      A very strange enchanted boy _

_      They say he wandered very far, very far _

_      Over land and sea _

_      A little shy and sad of eye _

_      But very wise was he…” _

 

     The night cycle had begun, so a cold air cast over the surface of the moon. Light reflected off its neighboring planet, enough so to help direct her in the darkness of night. She whistled along to the tune of her favorite childhood song, her eyes keen on her path. The alien creature had yet to be spotted, and thankfully, she would be safe from its havoc for the time being.

     The Prometheus had a remarkable radio system, one set to connect with other Weyland models in the star system. It was her hope that it wouldn’t be too worse for the wear, and still repairable. Despite the damage done to the ship, the radio system was small, and she had more than enough experience in her field of expertise to effectively restore it. In the hollow wailing of the night wind, she pressed on, deep into the destroyed hull of the Prometheus, and ventured in as the walls closed around her and enveloped her in black. She navigated with a travel-sized flashlight, one she kept handy on her belt, as the task grew more taxing the longer the night drew on.

     It took her nearly thirty minutes just to find the right panel in the cockpit that housed the radio system’s life support. With a weighty pop, she pried the metal off the wall and it fell to the ground. On the surface the radio looked mostly in-tact. Deftly, she parsed through the tiny cracks in the wiring and circuitry with her flashlight, just to be certain there was no irreparable damage. As the sweat slid down the sides of her face, she found herself smiling.

     A little wear and tear, but ultimately something salvageable. Thank God.

     The next hour went by in mere moments, and she had successfully rewired and soldered any damaged filaments so that the radio was back to one-hundred per cent. Her breath caught in her throat as she lightly whimpered. This was her salvation. She knew that.

     With trembling fingers, she aligned her suit’s comm unit with the same frequency as the radio, and started recording.

 

_      “This is Second Engineer Clemence Vega of the USCSS Prometheus. The craft has been wrecked on the moon LV-223 of Zeta Ret. Please, if you hear this, I survived. There might be others here as well. Send for help. Please. Please.” _

**Author's Note:**

> as always, thank you for reading, and a special thank you to my beta clementinethedemon :-)


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